July 15, 2010
July 15, 2010
Compact Power facility in Holland estimated to create more than 1,200 jobs; part of long-term state strategy to create advanced battery industry in Michigan
LANSING - Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today joined President Barack Obama in Holland to celebrate the construction of Compact Power's new lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing plant. The facility, expected to create approximately 440 direct jobs and more than 800 spin-off jobs in West Michigan by 2015, is part of the state's long-term strategy to make Michigan a center for advanced battery research and production.
Compact Power, a subsidiary of LG Chem Ltd., won a $151.4 million U.S. Department of Energy grant last August to begin production of lithium-ion battery cells for electric vehicles - one of 13 Michigan-based projects awarded more than $1.35 billion in Recovery Act funding to support advanced battery and electric vehicle manufacturing and development.
"We project 62,000 new jobs will be created in Michigan in the advanced battery industry in the next 10 years," Granholm said. "We're well on our way to becoming the advanced battery capital of the world. It's the result of our aggressive state strategy combined with Recovery Act investments through our partnership with President Obama and his administration."
Michigan saw the opportunity for an advanced battery industry well before any other state and developed an aggressive strategy to foster and grow the industry.
That strategy included creation of the first state battery tax credits in the nation. The credits signaled Michigan's commitment to becoming a leader in the advanced battery industry and were a key factor in Michigan projects winning more than half of all the Department of Energy advanced battery and electric vehicle grant dollars announced in August 2009.
In just the last 11 months, 16 advanced automotive battery and battery technology companies have committed to projects in Michigan and will create an estimated 62,000 new jobs by 2020.
The new Compact Power facility in Holland will be able to manufacture up to 20 million battery cells a year, enough for about 150,000 vehicle battery packs. Ford Motor Company announced this week that Compact Power will supply lithium-ion batteries and battery packs for the company's Ford Focus electric vehicle which goes into production next year. Compact Power also will provide cells for the Chevrolet Volt, General Motors' electric vehicle.
In addition to Compact Power's Holland facility, five other lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing plants are either under construction in Michigan or soon will be. They are A123 Systems in Livonia, Dow Kokam in Midland, fortu PowerCell in Muskegon, Johnson Controls-Saft in Holland and Sakti3 in Ann Arbor.
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